Open-access publishing at what cost?

As a footnote to the article on open-access publishing, let me point out that among the main beneficiaries of such publishing are people like me, trained and interested in physics but not directly involved or institutionally affiliated. Such “outsiders” are openly discriminated against by the preprint arXiv at Cornell University. We are denied the option to contribute unless vigorously endorsed by a member of the academic in-group. Does physics benefit from maintaining a person’s lifelong interest in the subject, and if so, what is being done by the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics to foster such interest in the broader community?

Recently I had wanted to consult a one-page comment that had appeared in the American Journal of Physics 18 years ago. I could have gone to my local university’s physics department library and copied the page for 10 cents. However, being 82 and lazy, I preferred to go online to the AIP website, where I discovered that the page I wanted was available for downloading at a price of $19. Oddly enough, I paid this. I might have gotten a discount if I could have remembered my “membership number,” whatever that is.

But I wonder how such a pricing policy squares with some of the declaratory words emanating from AIP. For instance, the fine print in the front of every Physics Today issue states that AIP “serves physics and related fields … with programs, services, and publications—information that matters.” Well, if the information matters at all, why not make it available to the public at a reasonable price? How does the current AIP policy promote the diffusion—among the American taxpayers who are supposed to support ever-growing federal physics investments—of knowledge of physics? Simply put, what is not-for-profit about charging $19 for a one-page download of 18-year-old material?

[Editor’s note: We invited Fred Dylla, executive director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics, to respond to Thomas Phipps.]